Sal Borer Hits Amarkantak Forests: 9,535 Trees Affected, Cutting Planned From October

Sal borer, a beetle that hollows out trees from inside, has hit the dense forests of Amarkantak and Dindori in Madhya Pradesh, and forest officials are preparing a plan to cut the infected trees. The report was published on September 27, 2026.

According to Trainee IFS officer Jaswant Singh Meena, SDO of the Rajendragram sub-division in Anuppur, the infestation is confined to the Amarkantak range, which has 18 compartments. A survey found 9,535 affected trees across 5,157 hectares. The forest area is about 8,525 hectares and holds roughly 40 lakh sal trees. Eight of the 10 beats are infected: Amarkantak, Sonmuda, Kapildhara, Umargohan, Bhudakona, Damgarh, Paudi and Tali.

The Regional Empowered Committee has approved the cutting, which is planned to begin in October. A workshop with experts was held in Amarkantak about a month before the report, and a similar one in Dindori. Beat guards and deputies were trained and will in turn train labourers, who will carry out the cutting alongside experts.

Officials acknowledge several challenges. The terrain at Amarkantak is remote and partly hilly, transporting the felled trees will be difficult, and there is a shortage of labour.

The beetle moves from one tree to another after destroying the first. Warning signs are powdery debris at the base of the tree and yellowing leaves. The report says outbreaks return roughly every 30 to 35 years, with earlier ones recorded in 1995–96 around Amarkantak and in 1923–24 in the Dindori–Amarkantak belt.

Anuppur has about 35 percent sal trees, and officials say that more of them could be infected if affected trees are not removed. A separate report said Dindori plans to cut 1,46,784 infected sal trees with approval from the Union Environment Ministry.